


An Angel Always Listens

by Aria_Lerendeair



Series: RandomSlasher Comic-Fic Verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, I promise, Implied Sam/Gabe, M/M, RandomSlasher's Comics, With more to come, fanart inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:57:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/pseuds/Aria_Lerendeair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the wonderful RandomSlasher's comics, this is the story of what would happen if I threw Gabriel (an overprotective Gabriel at that) into the mix of Sam's regular bouts of self-loating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Angel Always Listens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RandomSlasher (Randomslasher)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Randomslasher/gifts).



> So there are a few really important things.
> 
> STOP AND READ THIS PIECE
> 
> If you want to understand what is going on in this fic (and have context for it), please check out the following three comics by RandomSlasher, in order. It will help the fic MAKE SO MUCH MORE SENSE, since I took the dialogue and scenes almost straight out of them.
> 
> Comic #1: http://randomslasher.tumblr.com/post/50766014574/okay-sam-today-youre-gonna-do-better-youre  
> Comic #2: http://randomslasher.tumblr.com/post/50787830309/dean-sammy-whore-you-talking-t-what-the  
> Comic #3: http://randomslasher.tumblr.com/post/51799625838/sams-confession
> 
> Now please read and enjoy. <3

 

 

 

Dying sucks.  A lot.  Let me be the first one to tell you that.  What happens to us when we die?  Well, I certainly got to find out first hand.  I could have lived a very long eternity without ever discovering this.  One more thing Castiel and I can bond over I suppose.  Though he’s gone through this more than once.  It’s no wonder the kid is different.  Dying as an angel changes you.  

****

Right.  Back to dying.  So, I’m not sure why I’m still around.  I certainly shouldn’t be.  After Lucifer stabbed me (yeah, talk to me about your family problems, hah!), my Grace exploded on every plane that I was touching and scattered across the entire planet.  (I’m lucky it wasn’t the galaxy!)  Mostly because that’s where I had spent a seriously large portion of my existence.  

****

Time didn’t mean anything.  That sucked.  I had no idea how long I floated around, silently picking up small pieces of my Grace as I drifted.  I didn’t spend much time wondering why -I-, the bit that made me, well, me, wasn’t dead.  It was easy enough to figure out.  Kali.  She had my blood.  Tinged with Grace.  Apparently enough to keep from going to the big white light in the sky.  

****

I’d have to thank her one of these days.  Maybe.  She’d get a kick out of it.  

****

Anyways.  Back to what I was up to.  Floating around doing nothing gets boring really fast.  I definitely wasn’t corporeal by any stretch of the imagination, but one day when I picked up a large piece of Grace, I could hear.  Not hear normal mundane, stupid conversations that humans liked to have that sounded far too fake and far too alike, but my favorite thing to listen to.  Prayers.  

****

Unlike being tuned into angel radio (as the Winchesters coined it), which allowed me to hear all prayers and pick out the ones I wanted to listen to, I could hear the ones closest to me as I floated by.  Gradually, as I picked up a few more pieces of my scattered Grace, the overall hum of prayers faded and turned into ones that were directed to me.  Or Loki.  Humans I had formed a brief bond with, whether through a trick, or a choice encounter were the loudest.  Always.  

****

Then I started to hear him.   Because he wasn’t praying to god.  Just to someone up there.  Cas could probably hear his prayers too, but they were coming to me.  Just like he had been hardwired into my brain.  Therefore impossible to ignore.  

****

‘Okay Sam.  Today you’re gonna do better.  You’re not gonna let him down.  You’re not gonna fail him.  You’re not gonna taint him or d-drive him away again.  He doesn’t have to stick around, but he does.  Don’t mess that up, Sam.’

****

I could feel that brat’s heartache like it was my own.  His prayer certainly wasn’t traditional, he wasn’t asking for help, or for divine intervention.  It wasn’t even a prayer.  Not really.  But it felt like a prayer and my Grace responded to it, pulling me closer to where they were.  Sight still eluded me, I had no idea where we were, but I could feel Sam’s soul, bright, shining thing that it was.  I could hear Dean’s voice, but not feel his soul, so it must have been something else, some other way Sam (and therefore myself) could hear it.  

****

‘You listen to me you bloodsucking freak...’

****

The words cut off abruptly and I felt anger for the first time since my death.  Anger at those careless words that would cut so much deeper than any other.  Sam did not deserve those words.  

****

‘Don’t ever forget what you are.’  

****

I heard the last piece of Sam’s prayer and the magnet that had drawn me so close to Sam started to release me.  The prayer was over, I could do nothing.  Except...

****

I reached out my Grace and tied a small piece of it to Sam’s soul.  It would act in my stead if I was not able to help next time.  Maybe when I got stronger, it would help me find the kid.  

********  
  
  


****

I had no idea how long it was before I heard the kid again.  Months, years maybe.  I’d grown strong enough to see.  But that small piece of Grace I’d left with Sam was tugging on me, demanding my attention.  Pushy bastard.  Sam certainly wasn’t praying, or I would have heard it.  I followed the call of my Grace and made it to the hotel, watching Sam.  He was listening to his cell phone.  It took me a minute to focus in on the sound so I could hear the words.  Dean again.

****

‘Dad always said I’d have to save you or kill you.  Well, I’m giving you fair warning.  I’m done trying to save you.’  

****

Rage filled me this time.  What had happened to the two brothers who would do anything for each other?  Die for each other?  I didn’t feel the tug of my Grace from Sam’s soul until it suddenly lit up.  It had accomplished what it wanted to.  

****

‘Dean!’

****

I looked up.  Dean was walking back through the door, looking confused.  Somehow, that small piece of my Grace had reacted to Sam’s emotions and the cause of it, trying to fix it.  

****

‘Sammy?  Who’re you talking t-’

****

‘You’re a monster, Sam.  A vamp-’  I watched Sam turn the phone off quickly, shame and embarrassment coloring his features.  

****

‘What the-?’

****

‘Dean, I....I just...’

****

I missed the necklace that Sam was holding.  The necklace that supposedly had the power to call Dad.  Not that I believed in it.  Whole bunch of bullshit if you asked me.  If he could ignore the call of the entire Host for the millennia he did, one little necklace wasn’t going to change that.  

****

The look of surprise on Dean’s face was quickly blending into anger.  I had no idea if I’d be able to do anything other than watch the stupid bastard when suddenly Dean snatched the phone and the necklace from Sam.  In another two quick motions, the phone was smashed beyond repair.  I watched Dean hand it back to Sam and felt triumphant.  The piece of my Grace inside Sam was glowing happily with the rest of Sam’s soul.  

****

I watched Dean place the necklace back around his neck and felt my Grace brighten.  They had not changed.  They were still themselves, despite everything.  

****

‘You may wanna get that phone looked at, Sammy.’

****

‘I, uh...I’ll be sure to do that.’

****

Dean left the room, probably to resume whatever he had been doing before that small piece of my Grace had called him back in.  I turned to look at Sam.  He was crying.  Happily.  Looking down at his crushed phone like it held all of the secrets in the world to happiness.  He turned and tossed it towards the hotel garbage can.  The loud, resounding ‘CLANG’ was my cue to leave.  

****

I took one last moment to drift over to Sam’s soul and wrap what was left of me, along with my Grace, around that bright soul.  It responded, brightening the way it only did around Dean.  Even though it did not know where the comfort was coming from, it knew and recognized it.  Sam’s soul was desperate for it, the comfort I could offer.  I stayed with him for as long as I could, until the draw of the remaining pieces of my Grace was too much and I drifted away.  

********  
  
  
  


****

It was a long time until the kid prayed again.  This time the prayer was so loud, so desperate, I was positive I could have been halfway across the galaxy and still heard it.  There was a desperation around it that none of the others had.  Almost like the kid was running out of time.  Fear surged in my throat and I raced to where the prayer was coming from.  I was strong enough that I could possibly manage a corporeal form to fight if need be.  

****

I flew into the room and found Sam, by himself, on his knees, praying, just like he had as a child.  The piece of my Grace Sam still had surged, calling out for me, begging me to come closer.  To help.  However I could.  First I had to find out what was wrong.  I focused in on the words of Sam’s prayer.  

****

‘If anybody’s listening...here it goes.’

****

I watched Sam look to the sky.  Even though he couldn’t see me, I drifted in front of him so I could look him into the eyes.  He needed to know that someone was there.  Someone he could trust, not some nameless angel who wouldn’t answer his prayer.  

****

‘I...I failed my brother.  That’s my greatest sin.  See, Dean...he basically raised me.  And even when Dad thought I was a monster, he kept believing in me.’

****

The kid would never understand the kind of power that belief generated.  It was the true power of the Righteous Man.  To know something.  Not just have a gut feeling, or to guess at it.  But to know.  To know that what he believed was right.  I had to shake my head.  But I was not about to stop listening now.  

****

‘And I...I let him down.  Over and over again.  It was my fault he went to hell.  And I c-couldn’t save him.  I became a monster trying.  I...I freed Lucifer, started the apocalypse - and ruined his chance at a normal, happy life.  It’s what I’ve always done really. Stood in the way of his chances to be happy.’  

****

Someone needed to take these two idiots by the head and smack them together hard enough to realize that becoming self-sacrificing bastards wasn’t doing them any good.  Hell, I’d volunteer for the job.  Kick both of them into realizing how dependant they were on each other.  Maybe then they’d wake up and really recognize it.  They shared a soul.  Start getting used to it.  

****

‘I don’t expect to be forgiven.  These trials...’

****

I perked up, tuning back in.  Trials?  He couldn’t be talking about THE trials, could he?  Sam was involved in that mess?  

****

‘I understand now.  They’re my penance.  And I know I won’t be walking away.  I get it - I deserve this.’

****

It took an effort to bring my Grace back under control when it surged in outrage.  Sam was dying?  Was going to die?  Sacrifice himself for everyone again?  The piece of my Grace tied to Sam allowed me to see into his history, see what he had done to seal Lucifer back in the cage.  To sacrifice himself for everyone again.  

****

‘But...I hate that my failure is going to hurt him again.’  

****

Sam was looking down at the floor, tears in his eyes.  His prayer was gaining in power.  They were always more powerful when you were asking for someone else and not for you.  Sam’s prayer had the desperation only a dying man felt.  It made the prayer more powerful.  I was feeding off of the prayer now.  Responding to the request as only an angel could.  

****

‘I know I don’t deserve any favors, either, but...’  

****

My Grace was responding, absorbing the power the prayer was giving off.  I felt stronger than I ever had in this form.  Damn this kid could pray.  

****

‘But no one deserves to get out of this, to be happy, more than Dean.’

****

I watched the kid choke on the word happy, watched his soul flicker.  Almost like he did not know the meaning of the word any longer.  What did it mean to be happy?  For Dean to be happy?  Sam didn’t know, but he was positive it didn’t include him.  

****

‘Please...take care of him for me?’  

****

That was it.  The crest of the prayer that I had been waiting for.  You only had a moment to react to it.  You could either choose to let it pass, or respond.  There was no choice for me.  Sam’s soul was crying out for comfort again, to be soothed.  I couldn’t resist the call of this kid.  I never could.  It’s why my ass was in this position in the first place.  

****

I focused what I had gathered of my Grace into one tightly-packed area.  A vessel would have worked better for this, but as I had yet to find mine, there was only one way I could communicate with the kid.  Touching my Grace to Sam’s soul, I let the words come.  

****

‘You got it kiddo.  Wish granted.  But I’m gonna add you into that by extension.  I think you’ve died enough for this world.  It’s time we paid you back.’  

****

I felt Sam stand up in shock, his hair whipping around as he searched the room.  His soul was calling my name, shouting it.  When the word escaped from Sam so softly, “Gabriel...” I smiled.    I pressed closer, wrapping his soul in my Grace.

****

‘Yeah, that’s me.  Do me a favor and try to hold out a little longer.  Need to find my vessel and collect some more of my scattered Grace before I’ll really be of use.’  I paused and gave his soul a tight squeeze, watching it brighten further.  ‘So try and stay on this side of life, okay?  Not that I wouldn’t head down to hell to kick some royal ass to bring you back, but this is a little easier.  So hang tough for me.  I’ll be back harassing you before you know it.’  

****

I listened to Sam chuckle and wipe at his eyes, looking around, trying to find me, trying to see where I was.  It took me longer than it should have, but I pulled away from his soul, already missing its warmth.  

****

“Hey Gabriel?”  

****

I paused, looking back at him.  Even though Sam couldn’t feel me anymore, he smiled.  It was a real smile, and despite how exhausted and sick he looked, the happiness his soul could feel easily shone through.  

****

“Thanks.”  

****  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So, there will be a second story added to this that I am just finishing up. I'm a sucker for a happy ending, so look forward to that coming in the very near future. 
> 
> In the meantime, please enjoy! 
> 
> Comments and Criticisms welcome!
> 
> You can find me here: http://aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com/
> 
> You can also watch me write fics like this (and dozens of others) live! Follow me on Livestream for fics, shenanigans and a general all-around awesome time! http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7212317


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